Isn't All Social Media Creepy?

By Ivy Decker on March 2, 2013

There are ways to use social media sites and there are ways to not. For example, it is perfectly OK for someone to like a picture of the concert you went to last week. On the other hand, it is beyond creepy when someone likes a picture of you from 2009. What? Someone was going through your albums or stalking your tweet history? Your first thought: “What a creep!” But you, sir or ma’am, are the creep-enabler.

We’re addicted to posting just about everything, and whichever site you use (facebook, twitter, tumblr, etc.), you’re basically making an online record of your life. It’s something like a journal — you wouldn’t post the things you do unless they meant something to you. But this journal isn’t for secrets; it’s for everyone to see. This is especially nice for friends who aren’t as nearby as they used to be, or family that you wouldn’t necessarily call personally to share what’s going on in your life. However, none of us really limit our friend lists to those closest to us. Most of us have at least a few hundred friends or followers, a number of relationships that there is no psychological way we can actually manage. This is the key — we share our adventures, or lack thereof, with acquaintances, but we’re surprised when they act upon our posts.

This is generally speaking of course, but I find this to be a huge contradiction. You posted it for everyone to see, basically asking people to react. It’s a simple solution; just hit that unfriend or block button. If someone you’re willing to remove from your circle of social media gets offended by this, they probably shouldn’t have even been in your contacts in the first place. Another tip to remember: being popular online is like sitting at the cool kids table in an insane asylum. You want to build close, strong relationships with the people that matter the most to you, not superficial ones with every person from your school plus their distant relatives and ex-boyfriends who moved to Minnesota.

Maybe we should just go back to the pen and paper days of “Dear diary…”